Tom Kim notches his fourth PGA Tour victory at the Genesis Scottish Open.
SEAN M. HAFFEY, GETTY IMAGES
NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | Tom Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open and did decidedly well to stay ahead of Min-Woo Lee and Matt Fitzpatrick in the process. With three holes to play, Lee, who was in the game behind, had crept to within one of Kim at 15-under par to his 16 under, with Fitzpatrick just two to his rear.
Kim may well have been shaken but, to his credit, he responded with a birdie at the Renaissance Club’s 16th hole and ended up with a 64 which left him two clear of Lee at 17-under 263. “It’s awesome,” he said, before looking back to how he had finished third in 2022 and played in the final group with winner Rory McIlroy in 2023.
Who Else Won
KORN FERRY TOUR
Ross Steelman
READ MORE | RESULTS
Hotel Planner TOUR
Lars van der Vight
EPSON TOUR
Haylee Harford Sanchez
PGA TOUR AMERICAS
Thomas Ponder
LEGENDS TOUR
Johan Edfors
The leaderboard, by the time the fog-delayed third round was completed Sunday morning, had shown a non-stop list of possible winners. Fitzpatrick, Lee and Bob MacIntyre were all lying on 12 under, with defending champion Chris Gotterup, Kim and Michael Thorbjornsen on 11 under. The leaders were setting out for the final round at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon and not getting back to base until close to 8 o’clock, which was hardly what they want going into Open Championship week. Straightaway, they were mostly being ferried straight to Edinburgh airport to catch a private plane to Liverpool, the nearest airport to Royal Birkdale.
Keita Nakajima and Johnny Keefer had come bounding into the leading list to share third place with Fitzpatrick and MacIntyre at 13 under, while Rory McIlroy was just one shot further back after a 64, which will have his fans thinking that the Open could be his.
“I felt like I was pretty much in control of everything after the first two days, and then the long day yesterday, waiting for the ‘haar’ [a Scottish sea fog] to disappear, I didn't get off to the best of starts, and then didn't finish the third round off today particularly well,” McIlroy said. “I sort of pieced my score [a 73] together.
“I sort of realised what I was doing and it’s a matter of trying to sort of rectify it. … Obviously there was some good in there today but there was some bad, as well.”
Does he feel he can rectify it in time for Thursday?
He does indeed. All he wants is to hit some balls in a right-to-left wind – and the other way about – in the next few days. That, he thinks, could do the trick.
Kim, a 24-year-old Korean, first became a standout among the Asian golfing community when he played in the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow, an event which was expected to be a rather one-sided affair for the Americans. When asked why he had changed his first name from Joo-Hyung to Tom, he lightened the mood with the explanation that a Thomas the Tank Engine toy had meant rather more to him than anything else until golf took over.
Kim’s golfing ups and downs have been mingled with worries over the last few years that he must embark on his mandatory military service before he is 28. Only by winning a gold medal in this year’s Asian Games – they run from 19 September to 4 October – would he escape his 18 to 21 months of service. Any number of individual victories, such as Sunday’s, will make no difference.
The fog certainly upset proceedings at the weekend, with many among the leading players having had to come to a full stop at 7:30 on Saturday night. And then, heaven help them, tee up at 7 Sunday morning, which meant getting to the course at least a couple of hours earlier.
“It was very disruptive,” said Dr. Andrew Murray, the DP World Tour’s medical man. “The players are used to doing much the same thing on a daily basis and suddenly they have to worry about their sleep.”
Over the weekend, people were hoping against hope that England’s Danny Willett, who won the 2016 Masters, might succeed in finishing among the top three who had not otherwise qualified to play at Royal Birkdale, and thereby earn an Open berth.
Guy Tilston, Marcel Siem’s regular caddie, knows the procedure well. “Some of them won’t know what to do with themselves. … They would have come back this morning for just a couple of holes, and then try and get a few hours’ sleep before they have to start for their final round. They probably won’t get any sleep. From my experience at least, the last thing they should do is to hang around the club.”
The DP World Tour’s agronomist had been out studying the course at dawn and conducting a meeting for the greenkeeping team shortly after 4 o’clock. By 4:30, the team would be doing Stimpmeter readings and following the agronomist’s advice in terms of which greens needed a single cut and which needed two or even three.
Kim carries momentum into this week’s Open.
MALCOM MACKENZIe, PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES
Over the weekend, people were hoping against hope that England’s Danny Willett, who won the 2016 Masters, might succeed in finishing among the top three who had not otherwise qualified to play at Royal Birkdale, and thereby earn an Open berth. He shot three 67s and one more of those might have been good enough. Instead, he was 2-over par in the final round, while Keefer, Thorbjornsen and Victor Perez punched their Open tickets.
A week after he had won at Augusta, Willett had back and shoulder problems, and didn’t want to play any more. His father, a minister, knew nothing about golf but he knew his son. “He told me that I seemed unsure of myself, which I was, and totally lacking in confidence,” Willett said.
Today, that confidence is seeping back into his play. The interesting thing is that Jordan Spieth was the player who had had a five-shot lead over him when they were playing the 12th in the final round at the 2016 Masters. “Jordan’s epic disaster” was how one publication labelled Spieth’s watery 7.
Since that week, Spieth has shared the same problems as Willett in having swing and injury issues. To such an extent that he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since 2022.
Fans heading for Birkdale may or may not have found time to read the Open Championship spectator regulations the R&A sent out last week. “The Open Commitment,” as it is called, is “a new fan code of conduct that celebrates the unique atmosphere that has defined golf’s original championship for more than 165 years.”
If you haven’t seen it, you can get it on TheOpen.com. It’s 32 paragraphs long, all of them politely penned, though maybe that single line about avoiding “irresponsible use of alcohol” would have been enough.
There’s no doubt that the most appealing idea that has been introduced is the “Last-Chance Qualifier” for the Open that was to take place on Monday. The winner will no doubt be wondering if he could do as Arthur Fery in starting out as a wild card at Wimbledon and finishing as a believe-it-or-not semifinalist.
Lewine Mair
